


Cut Both Ways

by Vana



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: F/M, M/M, angst angst sadness, i needed a lot of kleenex here, this is not my usual jam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-04
Updated: 2013-07-04
Packaged: 2018-01-18 12:52:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1429258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vana/pseuds/Vana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hard truths cut both ways.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cut Both Ways

**Author's Note:**

> A story in five drabbles (exactly 100 words each) with the prompted word as the title of each.

**_Wedding_ **

“And I don’t want a serif font on it. Serif fonts are so overdone on invitations. No nouveau-Edwardian script either.”

“All right.”

“And I don’t want anything about ‘joining hearts.’”

“Okay.”

“And I don’t want it to say anything like ‘ _together with their families_ , Davos Seaworth and Stannis Baratheon cordially invite you’ — What? What’s wrong? Why are you making that face?”

“There’s no reason. Really.”

“Is this about your family? You want them listed—”

“No. The thing is … the way you said that. You would put my name first?”

Stannis suddenly flushed a deep red. “I suppose I would.”

 

**_Murder_ **

Two months before the wedding — whose invitations were the picture of restraint, with nary a serif or a sentimental turn of phrase to be found on them — Stannis’ brother was choked in his sleep. A home invasion, said the cops, but whether it was a planned murder or just a robbery gone wrong nobody knew. The authorities had no leads. Stannis was horribly shaken. He screamed Renly’s name in his sleep, woke up with panicked eyes, staring at his hands and turning them over and over. Davos tried to hold him through the terrors but Stannis only pushed him away.

 

**_Betrayal_ **

“All I tried to do was help.”

Stannis was furious. “You said you were never going to speak to those people again. You promised me.”

“The cops are useless. The guys I used to work with have ears on the street. They could maybe tell us something.”

“And then what were you going to do? Turn the information over to the police? Go after them yourself? I thought those days were over.”

Davos closed his eyes. He had lost this fight. “I did it for you.”

“You  _promised_  me.”

And he had lost Stannis. “It was for you.”

“You promised.”

 

**_Battle_ **

Unsent envelopes gathered dust along with unlicked stamps and unkissed goodnights, until finally there were no goodnights at all. “Did you have someone do it? Did you have him killed?” Davos asked once. Only once. He wasn’t sure why, or whether he had even been heard. And he looked at Stannis’ phone, once — only once. There was a woman’s name he didn’t recognize and the last message she had sent read “ _tonight?”_  and Stannis had written “ _y”_  and Davos set the phone down. When asked, Stannis left with his phone and never came back. That was the way he fought.

 

**_Funeral_ **

Wet grass stained the mourners’ boots and high heels. “Sixty is far too young,” they said, “but he was always under so much stress.” The beautiful widow wept beneath a mesh veil. Was she the one he’d met that night, twenty years before? Davos didn’t know and he didn’t care. In his hand he held a yellowing card. “Davos Seaworth and Stannis Baratheon joyfully request the pleasure of your company …” He folded the invitation and slipped it into the ground above the closed casket, head bowed as if he were merely praying. He had always been able to move unseen.


End file.
